Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly has suspended the Town Officer of Jhado Town Committee for spending 8 million rupees on various projects and failing to provide the necessary vouchers for auditing. The decision was made during a PAC meeting chaired by Nisar Khuhro at the Sindh Assembly’s committee room.
The meeting reviewed the audit paras of the 2019 and 2020 financial years of the Mirpurkhas District Council and town committees. During the meeting, it was revealed that the Jhado Town Committee had spent 7.3 million rupees on sanitation and water pipelines without a tender and purchased dewatering pumps for 480,000 rupees each, amounting to 1.4 million rupees.
PAC Chairman Khuhro questioned the purchase, asking which dewatering pump could cost 480,000 rupees and why a tender was not issued for the purchase. The Town Officer responded that the record was damaged during the rains. In response, PAC instructed the Additional Chief Secretary for Local Government to conduct an investigation and submit a report.
The meeting also revealed that despite having 100 sanitary workers, the Jhado Town Committee had outsourced the cleaning contract, costing 1.076 million rupees every month. Khuhro asked the officials about the total number of employees, including any ghost employees, at Jhado Town Committee.
The Town Officer informed the committee that there were 222 employees, and 20 million rupees were spent on their salaries each month, with no ghost employees. PAC ordered an investigation into the verification of all employees, requesting details and attendance registers. Chairman Nisar Khuhro expressed his disappointment over the performance of local government officers, stating,
“The officers’ poor performance tarnishes the reputation of the Sindh government.” He emphasized that the Sindh government allocates billions of rupees to local bodies, but their performance remains disappointing. He called for the dismissal of officials responsible for damaging the government’s image.
